USA > Indiana > Encyclopedia of biography of Indiana > Part 33
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profession, the medical and daily press paid most hearty tribute to Dr. Harvey's worth at the time of his death. Suitable resolutions were spread on the records of the societies and of the Indiana Medical College. His funeral was attended by members of the Marion County Medical Society in a body, also by eminent prac- titioners from all over Indiana and other States.
JOHN H. VAJEN.
Although Americanized by a residence of more than three score years, and by an energetic promotion, through all his mature life, of American industry and in- stitutions, John Henry Vajen is of for- eign birth, having first seen the light in Hanover, Germany, March 19. 1828. His father, whose namesake he is, held a pro- fessorship in the University of Stade, in Hanover, prior to his emigration to. America. In 1836 he, with his family, crossed to Baltimore, Maryland, where he pursued his profession of instructor for a year, then proceeded to Cincinnati, where for two years he taught, officiating on Sunday as organist at the old Sixth Street church. In 1839 he bought a tract of land in Jackson county, Indiana, near Seymour, establishing there a colony of German Lutherans. Several hundred families joined the new settlement, and, together with him, built a capacious log church, perhaps the largest in Indiana. Mr. Vajen, who had previous to this time been ordained to the Lutheran ministry,
began preaching in the counties of Jack- son and Bartholomew, and before his death, which occurred in 1845, he had or- ganized four different congregations, all of which are still flourishing. Upon the decease of his father, the junior John Henry, a lad of seventeen, left home in search of an opportunity to earn his liveli- hood. His life had thus far been passed upon a farm and in the country schools, and he had received little training of a kind to help him in commercial life. Nothing daunted, however, he went to Cincinnati, and soon obtained a clerkship, starting on a small salary, with G. Herd- er, an old friend of his father's, in the wholesale and retail hardware business. Here he worked faithfully, toiling for his employer's interest and incidentally serv- ing his own by gaining a reputation for honesty and industry. He received steady promotion, and in 1848 was taken into the concern as a partner. Three years later, having in the meantime laid by the sum of $1,500, he severed his connection with Mr. Herder and repaired to Indian- apolis. This was in August, 1851; and in the following month he established him- self in the same line of trade, on East Washington street, for the first three years conducting therewith the manufac- ture of planes. Although his capital in money was small, he was rich in that best of capital, an extensive credit founded upon the confidence and esteem of many friends, and his hardware enterprise tlirove from the start, netting him, dur- ing the first five years, $50,000. In 1856,
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finding himself cramped for room, he erected the four-story building at 21 West Washington street. Removing thither in 1861, he associated with him J. S. Hilde- brand and J. L. Fugate, who a few years later had accumulated sufficient capital to become active partners in the business. To these partners, Mr. Vajen, whose health had been gradually declining. dis- posed of his entire interest in 1871 and joined the ranks of his city's substantial retired citizens. A prominent banker of Indianapolis says of Mr. Vajen: "I have much admired his indomitable pluck and determination in building up a large and successful hardware business, al- though handicapped by ill health. He was efficient and prompt in all his business engagements, and publie spirited in the matters pertaining to the welfare of his own State. It was this feature that our own popular 'War Governor' acknowl- edged and appreciated in the person of John H. Vajen." Mr. Vajen was an inti- mate friend of Governor Morton, to whom he rendered valuable service at the begin- ning of the Civil War. Through the en- thusiastic recommendation of many prominent business men, and through the friendship which the Governor felt for him, he was offered and reluctantly ac- cepted the appointment of quartermaster general of the State; and it is an histori- «al fact, and one significant of Mr. Vajen's fitness for this responsible and arduous post, that scarcely any other State in the Union responded to the first call for troops with soldiers so well prepared as
did Indiana. The equipment for camp life, at short notice, of thousands of men, is a task requiring great executive abil- ity, yet was grasped by Mr. Vajen with a masterly hand, and accomplished at a cost considerably less than that incurred by most of the other States. In about a year he resigned his office as quartermas- ter general; and in March of 1864 he helped to organize the banking concern of Fletcher, Vajen & Co., which, after one year of successful operation, was merged, first into the Fourth National and later into the Citizens' National Bank, of which he was a large stockholder and one of the directors. In January, 1877, having to some extent regained his health, Mr. Vajen again engaged in the hardware business, purchasing the establishment of Story, New & Co., No. 64 East Washing- ton street, the style of the firm becoming and continuing until dissolution, Vajen, New & Co. Mr. Vajen has taken an ac- tive part in the development of Indian- apolis from the town of 8,000 inhabitants to which he first came to the fine metropo- lis it now is. His real estate interests have been extensive, properties in and near the city to the value of upwards of five millions having passed through his hands. The city has been expanded by fourteen additions laid out by him, while its beauty has been enhanced by many fine buildings of his erection, including the first stone-front dwelling. Mr. Vajen was married October 9, 1850, to Miss Alice Fugate, a school-teacher of ('incin- nati. In Mrs. Vajen are united all do-
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mestic graces with high culture and a public sympathy which fosters many worthy enterprises, institutions of which she is a director being the Boys' Club and The Home for Friendless Women. The seven children of Mr. and Mrs. Vajen are: Willis C., Franklin, John Henry, Fannie B., Alice J., Charles T. and Caroline E. These children, who are endowed at once with their father's sterling qualities and their mother's gentleness and refinement, are now grown and dispersed to various parts of the country, from which points their filial missives flow together in the fine old homestead at No. 630 North Mer- idian street, to the enlivenment of the advancing days of Mr. and Mrs. Vajen.
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LAWSON M. HARVEY.
The subject of this sketch was born at Plainfield, Hendricks county, Indiana, on December 5, 1856. Eight years later his parents moved to Indianapolis, where he has since resided. His father, the late Thomas B. Harvey, M. D., whose biogra- phy appears in this volume, was born in Clinton county, Ohio, where the grand- parents of Mr. Lawson Harvey were prom- inent in educational and church work, both being members of the first Board of Trustees of Earlham College at Rich- mond, Indiana. Mr. Harvey's mother, whose maiden name was Delitha Butler, was born in Union county, Indiana. She has for many years been prominent in
church and charitable work. She was for a number of years president of the board of managers of the Colored Orph- ans' Home and is now a member of sev- eral charitable institutions in Indianapo- lis. Mr. Harvey's ancestors for several generations have been members of the Friends' Church of which he is also a member. He attended the public schools of his adopted city, the Indianapolis Clas- sical School, Butler University and Hav- erford College, and in 1882 graduated at the Central Law School at Indianapo- lis, and immediately after engaged in gen- eral practice of law, in both the Federal and State courts. When the firm of Ayres & Brown was dissolved, caused by the elevation of Mr. Ayres to the bench of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, in 1884, Mr. Harvey formed a partnership with Mr. Brown. Some three years later Judge Ayres resigned and returned to the prac- tice, when the firm became Ayres. Brown & Harvey. In 1890 Mr. Brown was elect- ed to the bench of the same circuit and Mr. Harvey continued the practice alone until elected Judge of the Superior Court of Marion county in 1894. In 1898 he declined a renomination that he might re- turn to the practice of his profession. His practice was confined almost exclu- sively to civil business and to the spe- cialties of commercial and corporation law. He has for several years been a member of the board of directors of the Sinker-Davis Company, manufacturers of machinery, and a member of the board of
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the Plymouth Savings and Loan .Associa- tion, one of the largest and most pros- perous in the city, and an officer and at- torney for several other mercantile cor- porations. He is one of the advisory board of the Friends' Boarding Home for Working Girls, an institution conducted in Indianapolis under the general super- vision of the Western Yearly Meeting of Friends. He is a member of the Century Chib, a literary organization, and of the Marion Club, an organization of younger Republicans of Marion county. For four terms succeeding the year 1888 he was secretary of the Indianapolis Bar Asso- ciation. For several years he lectured before the classes of the Medical College of Indiana on the subject of Medical Juris- prudence. His wife. Kate P., is the dangh- ter of Mr. Horace Parrott, a retired mer- chant of Indianapolis. He has two sons, Thomas P. and Horace F., and one daugh- ter, Jeanette. Althongh but forty-two years of age, Mr. Harvey has attained a high position at the bar and on the bench, a position reached by few so early in life, and, in fact, many never attain it. His genial character, unobtrusiveness and pleasant manners win him friends where- ever he is known.
JOSIAH J. PARKHURST.
Josiah J. Parkhurst, president of the La Porte Carriage Company of La Porte, Indiana, was born at Albion, Oswego
county, New York, in 1837, the son of Simeon Parkhurst and Mary Ann Henry. Mr. Parkhurst is of the seventh genera- tion of this family in America; the orig- inal emigrant came from England in 1638 and settled in Boston. He was a man of considerable prominence and nearly all the Parkhursts in the United States are descended from him. The great-grand- father of our subject was a captain in the Colonial army. Other members of the family were in the Revolutionary war and all were pronounced patriots. Mr. Parkhurst's educational advantages were confined to the common schools and the academy of his native county. After sur . ing as clerk in a general store for a few years, he went into business on his own account, opening a store in Mexico, New York, for the sale of clothing and furnish- ing goods. After continuing this busi- ness for two years, he sold out and en- tered the employ of A. T. Stewart & Co. of New York, as a salesman. After one year with this concern, he returned to Mexico in the spring of 1861 and went in- to the dry goods business on his own ac- count. In 1864 his stock of goods was de- stroved by fire, and he soon after decided to try his fortune in the West. In the spring of 1865 he came to Chicago and established the iron house of Parkhurst & Co., which has been in business contin- uously to the present date. In 1867 the firm became Parkhurst & Wilkinson, the partners being John and Dudley Wilkin- son. These gentlemen came from Syra-
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cuse, New York, and were sons of John Wilkinson, Esq., a prominent business man and financier of that city. The busi- ness of the Chicago concern has always been the jobbing of iron and heavy hard- ware. In October, 1897, a stock company was formed under the corporate name of the Parkhurst & Wilkinson Company, which still continues. In 1889 they pur- chased the property in La Porte, Indiana, that had been known as the Loomis Car- riage Company, their object being to man- ufacture buggy bodies and gearing to sup- ply their jobbing trade. The venture was successful, and in 1891 they decided to enlarge the plant and engage in the manufacture of carriages on an extensive scale. The concern was incorporated as the La Porte Carriage Company, with $100,000 paid-in capital. The business has been very profitable and in a few years has grown to be one of the leading manufacturing concerns in Northern In- diana. Their product is sold in every State and Territory in the Union, and is largely exported to foreign countries. Their present capacity is 10,000 finished vehicles per year. Mr. Parkhurst was married in 1862 to Miss Kate M. Bennett of Mexico, New York. They have one daughter and two sons, all married. Mr. Parkhurst is a Republican, a Knight Tem- plar and a member of the M. E. church. He has been a resident of Evanston, Illi- nois, since 1874 and has been a member of the board of trustees and of the ex- ecutive committee of the Northwestern University for twenty-two years.
GEORGE HASTY.
George Hasty, M. D., for many years a member of the faculty of the Physio- Medical College of Indiana; one of the organizers and first president of the .Am- erican Association of Physio-Medical Phy- sicians and Surgeons; and editor and pub- lisher of the Physio-Medical Journal, at Indianapolis, was born in Madison coun- ty, Indiana, September 30, 1835. His par- ents were Thomas and Ann (Raper) Hasty; his father, a farmer, was a native of Kentucky; his mother a Virginian by birth. His ambition from his youth was to be a physician, but he saw small oppor- tunity to gain the required professional education and, besides, in those days the path of the young doctor was not so easy as it has since been made. In all that country there was, and promised to be for some time to come, plenty of work for civil engineers and surveyors, and having some aptitude for mathematics, he determined to become a civil engineer. To accomplish this purpose he found it necessary to teach school to earn money to pay for his instruction and to buy in- struments. He taught a few terms in the log-walled and bark-roofed "poor man's colleges" of that time and locality, but finally abandoned the idea of making a surveyor of himself, returned to the farm and began to think seriously of becoming a physician in the face of all obstacles. Ile got together a few books, and from the time he was twenty gave to a course of reading on medical subjects every
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spare moment that was his, for his means were insufficient to permit him to give his entire time to the object he so much de- sired. He planned wisely and worked dili- gently, so that he was able, in the winter of 1858-59, to begin attending lectures at the Physio-Medical College at Cincinnati. In the winter of 1859-60 he took a second course of lectures at the Physio-Medical Institute of the same city, and graduated therefrom in the spring of 1860, with the degree of M. D. He did not waste any time in entering upon the practice of his profession, but located at once at Me- chanicsburg, near his old home, hung out his "shingle" and devoted himself hopefully to the more or less tedious task of waiting for his first call in his pro- fessional capacity to the bedside of some ailing mortal. He had not long to wait, and soon his patrons were so numerous that he found himself busy with a large and increasing general practice. At the same time he had by his success so im- pressed upon his brother practitioners a conviction of his ability that he was made a member of the faculty of his alma mater, the Physio-Medical Institute, of Cincinnati. The sessions were con- fined to the winter months, Dr. Has- ty's duties being so timed that he was enabled to perform them without serious detriment to his practice. At different times, until December, 1872, when he re- moved from Mechanicsburg to Indianap- olis, he occupied the chair of Chemistry, Anatomy and Surgery. Upon coming to Indianapolis he made his presence almost
immediately felt in the medical profes- sion. In 1873 he was one of the promot- ers, organizers and incorporators of the Physio-Medical College of Indiana, in the faculty of which he has been a member ever since, occupying the chair of surgery until 1878 and the chair of principles and practice since that time. During all the history of that institution, he has been influentially and helpfully identified with it and is at this time a prominent member of its board of trustees. He was one of the organizers and. a charter member of the Indiana Physio-Medical Association; helped organize and is still a member of the First District Physio-Medical Society; was one of the organizers and first presi- dent of the American Association of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons, and assisted to form and is still a member of the Indianapolis Physio-Medical So- ciety. He was present at the organiza- tion of both the State and National so- cieties and has never been absent from a meeting of either body from that time to this. The Physio-Medical Journal was established in 1875 by members of the faculty of the Physio-Medical College of Indiana, and in 1878 Dr. Hasty assumed entire control of the publication and has since been its editor and publisher. In that dual capacity he has so well directed it that it has a large and influential circu- lation among members of the Physio-Med- ical profession, and is considered one of the ablest and most carefully edited journals of the kind in the country. Dr. Hasty is a Republican and a member of
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the Masonic fraternity. He was married April 25, 1861, to Miss Caroline M. Julian, a native of Henry county, Indiana, and a daughter of Peter and Adaline (Hess) Julian, the former a native of Indiana, the latter of Virginia.
GEORGE S. WILSON.
Prominent among the educators of the Hoosier State, and undoubtedly influen- tial in establishing that reputation of paramount excellence which the State enjoys educationally, is George S. Wil- son, who was born September 10, 1858, in Greenfield, Hancock county, Indiana. John Wilson, his father, was a native of Londonderry, Ireland, born in 1811. He possessed a thorough education, having attended the noted universities of Dublin and Oxford. For a number of years he followed the vocation of a teacher. He was solicited to go as missionary to In- dia and was most anxious to do so, but his health being enfeebled, he was compelled very reluctantly to abandon this cher- ished plan. On emigrating to this coun- try, Mr. Wilson first settled in New Jer- sey, but being convinced that he would be benefited by moving farther West, he came to Indiana in 1848, where he con- tinned his residence until his death, which occurred on April 8, 1896. His children numbered five, three of whom are now living. John Wilson was a man of marked character and influence. As a farmer he was highly successful, and as
a man he was universally esteemed and venerated as one of the pioneers of the State. His reputation was that of a chari- table, kindly Christian gentleman, be- loved and respected by all who knew him. His wife, the mother of George S. Wilson, was of English ancestry. Mr. Wilson ob- tained his early education in the public schools of the State. After graduation from the High School at Greenfield he took a special course in the Indiana Uni- versity at Bloomington. Since that time he has devoted his life to his profession as an educator, and has now numbered some eighteen years in that pursuit. For eight years he held the position of super- intendent of the city schools of Green- field, Indiana. Much of his time and at- tention have been centered upon a very important phase of educational progress, namely, institute work. This has brought him in direct contact with hundreds of teachers throughout the State, and has given him great popularity both as an ed- ucational leader and personally. Mr. Wilson is a student by nature. To him, whatever was worthy of study, was worthy of his best thought and indefatig- able efforts. Possessing this innate love of study and investigation, he has been able to impart his knowledge in an able, forceful and entertaining manner, as only the born teacher can do. Like the gen- erality of students, polities has never had a great fascination for Mr. Wilson. He has adhered to the principles of the Re- publican party, believing it to embody more progressive ideas and a better con-
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ception of the needs of the people, than does any other. His competence and his faithfulness in his various positions im- pressed his friends so favorably that they induced him to become a candidate for superintendent of the Blind Institution. He was elected to this position on Septem- ber 4, 1897. Under his painstaking man- agement the institution is passing through an era of prosperity. ITis ad- ministration has been eminently satisfac- tory. Mr. Wilson is a Knight of Pythias and a thirty-second degree Mason. In his religious views he is an Episcopalian. On February 1, 1893, Mr. Wilson was married to Miss Daisy Steele of Green- field, Indiana. daughter of Hans Steele. They have a pleasant home in Greenfield made happy by two children.
CHARLES B. STUART.
Charles Benedict Stuart was born in Logansport. Indiana, April 21. 1851, and died February 20, 1899, at his home in La Fayette, Indiana. He was a son of Hon. William Z. Stuart, the distinguished lawyer and jurist, whose name stands pre- eminent in the judicial history of the State of Indiana, and Sarah Scribner Ben- odiet of Verona, New York. Judge Will- iam Z. Stuart was a native of Dedham. Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, born December 25, 1811. His parents were Dr. James and Nancy (Allison) Stuart, Scotch Presbyterians, who emigrated from Aberdeen to America, Charles B.
Stuart's elementary education was ob- tained in the Logansport schools, then preparing for college at Williston Sem- inary, East Hampton, Massachusetts, he entered Amherst College and graduated in the class of '73 with the degree of Bach- elor of Arts. He then attended Columbia Law School in New York, graduating therefrom with high honors in 1876. It was Mr. Stuart's intention to practice law in New York City and make that city his residence. On the death of Judge Stuart, Charles B. was appointed on the legal staff of the Wabash Railroad Company, a responsible position which his father had held for eighteen years, and to him was intrusted the duty of looking after the interests of this great corporation in Indiana. He devoted his life to this work. He made the welfare of the road his study by day and by night. He brought all his energies to the protection of the com- pany's interests, as it was the nature of the man to do well whatever he under- took. The legal affairs of the road were so well managed that he continued in the capacity of legal counsel up to the time of his death, nearly a quarter of a con- tury. He had a wide reputation as being one of the best corporation lawyers in the State. Mr. Stuart opened his law of- fice in La Fayette, Indiana, January 2, 1877, having removed from Logansport. In 1882 his brother William V. Stuart, became associated with him. After the dissolution of the firm of Coffroth & Stu- art, the firm was, January 21, 1890, composed of the Stuart brothers, Charles
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B., Thomas A. and William V. Soon death broke the link and bore to the grave Thomas Arthur, then in the prime of life. On August 23, 1892, Hon. E. P. Hammond became associated in the firm and the law firm of Stuart Brothers & Hammond was as familiar to the court records of Indiana and in the United States courts as any in the West. Mr. Stuart, in conjunction with his father-in- law, Mr. Adams Earl, became deeply in- terested in the importation and breeding of Hereford cattle soon after the breed first came into prominent notice in the West, and to the very last he was one of the leading supporters of that breed as well as one of the most powerful single factors in the business affairs of the Am- erican Hereford Breeders' Association. The great importation of English royal winners and high class breeding animals brought out by the firm of Earl & Stuart when they visited England in 1880 has always been regarded as the most valua- ble shipment of "white-faces" ever made by one man or firm at one time from Herefordshire herds. Upon that great foundation was built up at their beauti- ful Shadeland Farm, four miles from La Fayette, one of the most celebrated collec- tions of cattle the world has ever known. Mr. Stuart had a genius for mastering the details of any subject to which he gave his attention. He became not only an expert judge of Herefords, but as a stu- dent of blood-lines and combinations he was confessedly one of the best informed men on either side of the Atlantic. When
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